Saturday, November 16, 2013

Garlic Chips - Dehydrated Dish #3

Add these to soups, stews, sauces, and pasta/rice/potato water for extra flavor. Being cooked softens them up and mellows the intensity. It saves me from burnt garlic, spoiled garlic, and fingers that smell constantly like garlic.

The method:

Separate 2-3 bulbs of garlic into cloves. Skin the cloves by cutting the ends off, slitting the skin end to end, and slipping the cloves out. Slice the skinned cloves crosswise into thin rounds. You can see I've tried both crosswise and lengthwise. Crosswise chips dry more evenly.

Spread the rounds on dehydrator trays. I have some inserts that I have to use
for this since the normal tray holes are too big to accommodate small
garlic bits. I dry these at a lower temp (around 120 degrees) so as to not dry them out too
quick. They will smell burnt in that case. This will take 1-2 days. Wait
till they are thoroughly dried and crumble or snap when you attempt to
break them or they are likely to spoil.

Store them in an airtight container. You can leave them as is, or
pulverize them in a spice grinder into powder. I've had the powder last
up to a year. but it's impossible to get the smell out of the grinder so
I usually leave them as chips and use them up within a couple months.